Warlord of Mars Read online

  Produced by Judith Boss and Charles Keller. HTML version by Al Haines.

  Warlord of Mars

  By

  Edgar Rice Burroughs

  CONTENTS

  On the River Iss Under the Mountains The Temple of the Sun The Secret Tower On the Kaolian Road A Hero in Kaol New Allies Through the Carrion Caves With the Yellow Men In Durance The Pity of Plenty "Follow the Rope!" The Magnet Switch The Tide of Battle Rewards The New Ruler

  ON THE RIVER ISS

  In the shadows of the forest that flanks the crimson plain by theside of the Lost Sea of Korus in the Valley Dor, beneath the hurtlingmoons of Mars, speeding their meteoric way close above the bosom ofthe dying planet, I crept stealthily along the trail of a shadowyform that hugged the darker places with a persistency that proclaimedthe sinister nature of its errand.

  For six long Martian months I had haunted the vicinity of thehateful Temple of the Sun, within whose slow-revolving shaft, farbeneath the surface of Mars, my princess lay entombed--but whetheralive or dead I knew not. Had Phaidor's slim blade found thatbeloved heart? Time only would reveal the truth.

  Six hundred and eighty-seven Martian days must come and go beforethe cell's door would again come opposite the tunnel's end wherelast I had seen my ever-beautiful Dejah Thoris.

  Half of them had passed, or would on the morrow, yet vivid in mymemory, obliterating every event that had come before or after,there remained the last scene before the gust of smoke blinded myeyes and the narrow slit that had given me sight of the interiorof her cell closed between me and the Princess of Helium for a longMartian year.

  As if it were yesterday, I still saw the beautiful face of Phaidor,daughter of Matai Shang, distorted with jealous rage and hatred asshe sprang forward with raised dagger upon the woman I loved.

  I saw the red girl, Thuvia of Ptarth, leap forward to prevent thehideous deed.

  The smoke from the burning temple had come then to blot out thetragedy, but in my ears rang the single shriek as the knife fell.Then silence, and when the smoke had cleared, the revolving templehad shut off all sight or sound from the chamber in which the threebeautiful women were imprisoned.

  Much there had been to occupy my attention since that terrible moment;but never for an instant had the memory of the thing faded, andall the time that I could spare from the numerous duties that haddevolved upon me in the reconstruction of the government of theFirst Born since our victorious fleet and land forces had overwhelmedthem, had been spent close to the grim shaft that held the motherof my boy, Carthoris of Helium.

  The race of blacks that for ages had worshiped Issus, the falsedeity of Mars, had been left in a state of chaos by my revealmentof her as naught more than a wicked old woman. In their rage theyhad torn her to pieces.

  From the high pinnacle of their egotism the First Born had beenplunged to the depths of humiliation. Their deity was gone, andwith her the whole false fabric of their religion. Their vauntednavy had fallen in defeat before the superior ships and fightingmen of the red men of Helium.

  Fierce green warriors from the ocher sea bottoms of outer Mars hadridden their wild thoats across the sacred gardens of the Templeof Issus, and Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, fiercest of them all,had sat upon the throne of Issus and ruled the First Born whilethe allies were deciding the conquered nation's fate.

  Almost unanimous was the request that I ascend the ancient throneof the black men, even the First Born themselves concurring in it;but I would have none of it. My heart could never be with the racethat had heaped indignities upon my princess and my son.

  At my suggestion Xodar became Jeddak of the First Born. He hadbeen a dator, or prince, until Issus had degraded him, so that hisfitness for the high office bestowed was unquestioned.

  The peace of the Valley Dor thus assured, the green warriors dispersedto their desolate sea bottoms, while we of Helium returned to ourown country. Here again was a throne offered me, since no wordhad been received from the missing Jeddak of Helium, Tardos Mors,grandfather of Dejah Thoris, or his son, Mors Kajak, Jed of Helium,her father.

  Over a year had elapsed since they had set out to explore the northernhemisphere in search of Carthoris, and at last their disheartenedpeople had accepted as truth the vague rumors of their death thathad filtered in from the frozen region of the pole.

  Once again I refused a throne, for I would not believe that themighty Tardos Mors, or his no less redoubtable son, was dead.

  "Let one of their own blood rule you until they return," I saidto the assembled nobles of Helium, as I addressed them from thePedestal of Truth beside the Throne of Righteousness in the Templeof Reward, from the very spot where I had stood a year before whenZat Arras pronounced the sentence of death upon me.

  As I spoke I stepped forward and laid my hand upon the shoulder ofCarthoris where he stood in the front rank of the circle of noblesabout me.

  As one, the nobles and the people lifted their voices in a longcheer of approbation. Ten thousand swords sprang on high from asmany scabbards, and the glorious fighting men of ancient Heliumhailed Carthoris Jeddak of Helium.

  His tenure of office was to be for life or until his great-grandfather,or grandfather, should return. Having thus satisfactorily arrangedthis important duty for Helium, I started the following day forthe Valley Dor that I might remain close to the Temple of the Sununtil the fateful day that should see the opening of the prisoncell where my lost love lay buried.

  Hor Vastus and Kantos Kan, with my other noble lieutenants, I leftwith Carthoris at Helium, that he might have the benefit of theirwisdom, bravery, and loyalty in the performance of the arduousduties which had devolved upon him. Only Woola, my Martian hound,accompanied me.

  At my heels tonight the faithful beast moved softly in my tracks.As large as a Shetland pony, with hideous head and frightful fangs,he was indeed an awesome spectacle, as he crept after me on histen short, muscular legs; but to me he was the embodiment of loveand loyalty.

  The figure ahead was that of the black dator of the First Born,Thurid, whose undying enmity I had earned that time I laid him lowwith my bare hands in the courtyard of the Temple of Issus, andbound him with his own harness before the noble men and women whohad but a moment before been extolling his prowess.

  Like many of his fellows, he had apparently accepted the new orderof things with good grace, and had sworn fealty to Xodar, his newruler; but I knew that he hated me, and I was sure that in his hearthe envied and hated Xodar, so I had kept a watch upon his comingsand goings, to the end that of late I had become convinced that hewas occupied with some manner of intrigue.

  Several times I had observed him leaving the walled city of theFirst Born after dark, taking his way out into the cruel and horribleValley Dor, where no honest business could lead any man.

  Tonight he moved quickly along the edge of the forest until wellbeyond sight or sound of the city, then he turned across the crimsonsward toward the shore of the Lost Sea of Korus.

  The rays of the nearer moon, swinging low across the valley, touchedhis jewel-incrusted harness with a thousand changing lights andglanced from the glossy ebony of his smooth hide. Twice he turnedhis head back toward the forest, after the manner of one who is uponan evil errand, though he must have felt quite safe from pursuit.

  I did not dare follow him there beneath the moonlight, since itbest suited my plans not to interrupt his--I wished him to reachhis destination unsuspecting, that I might learn just where thatdestination lay and the business that awaited the night prowlerthere.

  So it was that I remained hidden until after Thurid had disappearedover the edge of the steep bank beside the sea a quarter of a mileaway. Then, with Woola following, I hastened across the open afterthe black dator.

&nb
sp; The quiet of the tomb lay upon the mysterious valley of death,crouching deep in its warm nest within the sunken area at the southpole of the dying planet. In the far distance the Golden Cliffsraised their mighty barrier faces far into the starlit heavens,the precious metals and scintillating jewels that composed themsparkling in the brilliant light of Mars's two gorgeous moons.

  At my back was the forest, pruned and trimmed like the sward toparklike symmetry by the browsing of the ghoulish plant men.

  Before me lay the Lost Sea of Korus, while farther on I caught theshimmering ribbon of Iss, the River of Mystery, where it wound outfrom beneath the Golden Cliffs to empty into Korus, to which forcountless ages had been borne the deluded and unhappy Martians ofthe outer world upon the voluntary pilgrimage to this false heaven.

  The plant men, with their blood-sucking hands, and the monstrouswhite apes that make Dor hideous by day, were hidden in their lairsfor the night.

  There was no longer a Holy Thern upon the balcony in the GoldenCliffs above the Iss to summon them with weird cry to the victimsfloating down to their maws upon the cold, broad bosom of ancientIss.

  The navies of Helium and the First Born had cleared the fortressesand the temples of the therns when they had refused to surrender andaccept the new order of things that had swept their false religionfrom long-suffering Mars.

  In a few isolated countries they still retained their age-old power;but Matai Shang, their hekkador, Father of Therns, had been drivenfrom his temple. Strenuous had been our endeavors to capturehim; but with a few of the faithful he had escaped, and was inhiding--where we knew not.

  As I came cautiously to the edge of the low cliff overlooking theLost Sea of Korus I saw Thurid pushing out upon the bosom of theshimmering water in a small skiff--one of those strangely wrought craftof unthinkable age which the Holy Therns, with their organizationof priests and lesser therns, were wont to distribute along thebanks of the Iss, that the long journey of their victims might befacilitated.

  Drawn up on the beach below me were a score of similar boats, eachwith its long pole, at one end of which was a pike, at the othera paddle. Thurid was hugging the shore, and as he passed out ofsight round a near-by promontory I shoved one of the boats intothe water and, calling Woola into it, pushed out from shore.

  The pursuit of Thurid carried me along the edge of the sea towardthe mouth of the Iss. The farther moon lay close to the horizon,casting a dense shadow beneath the cliffs that fringed the water.Thuria, the nearer moon, had set, nor would it rise again for nearfour hours, so that I was ensured concealing darkness for thatlength of time at least.

  On and on went the black warrior. Now he was opposite the mouthof the Iss. Without an instant's hesitation he turned up the grimriver, paddling hard against the strong current.

  After him came Woola and I, closer now, for the man was too intentupon forcing his craft up the river to have any eyes for what mightbe transpiring behind him. He hugged the shore where the currentwas less strong.

  Presently he came to the dark cavernous portal in the face of theGolden Cliffs, through which the river poured. On into the Stygiandarkness beyond he urged his craft.

  It seemed hopeless to attempt to follow him here where I could notsee my hand before my face, and I was almost on the point of givingup the pursuit and drifting back to the mouth of the river, thereto await his return, when a sudden bend showed a faint luminosityahead.

  My quarry was plainly visible again, and in the increasing lightfrom the phosphorescent rock that lay embedded in great patchesin the roughly arched roof of the cavern I had no difficulty infollowing him.

  It was my first trip upon the bosom of Iss, and the things I sawthere will live forever in my memory.

  Terrible as they were, they could not have commenced to approximatethe horrible conditions which must have obtained before Tars Tarkas,the great green warrior, Xodar, the black dator, and I broughtthe light of truth to the outer world and stopped the mad rush ofmillions upon the voluntary pilgrimage to what they believed wouldend in a beautiful valley of peace and happiness and love.

  Even now the low islands which dotted the broad stream were chokedwith the skeletons and half devoured carcasses of those who, throughfear or a sudden awakening to the truth, had halted almost at thecompletion of their journey.

  In the awful stench of these frightful charnel isles haggard maniacsscreamed and gibbered and fought among the torn remnants of theirgrisly feasts; while on those which contained but clean-pickedbones they battled with one another, the weaker furnishing sustenancefor the stronger; or with clawlike hands clutched at the bloatedbodies that drifted down with the current.

  Thurid paid not the slightest attention to the screaming thingsthat either menaced or pleaded with him as the mood directedthem--evidently he was familiar with the horrid sights thatsurrounded him. He continued up the river for perhaps a mile; andthen, crossing over to the left bank, drew his craft up on a lowledge that lay almost on a level with the water.

  I dared not follow across the stream, for he most surely would haveseen me. Instead I stopped close to the opposite wall beneath anoverhanging mass of rock that cast a dense shadow beneath it. HereI could watch Thurid without danger of discovery.

  The black was standing upon the ledge beside his boat, looking upthe river, as though he were awaiting one whom he expected fromthat direction.

  As I lay there beneath the dark rocks I noticed that a strongcurrent seemed to flow directly toward the center of the river, sothat it was difficult to hold my craft in its position. I edgedfarther into the shadow that I might find a hold upon the bank;but, though I proceeded several yards, I touched nothing; andthen, finding that I would soon reach a point from where I couldno longer see the black man, I was compelled to remain where I was,holding my position as best I could by paddling strongly againstthe current which flowed from beneath the rocky mass behind me.

  I could not imagine what might cause this strong lateral flow, forthe main channel of the river was plainly visible to me from whereI sat, and I could see the rippling junction of it and the mysteriouscurrent which had aroused my curiosity.

  While I was still speculating upon the phenomenon, my attentionwas suddenly riveted upon Thurid, who had raised both palms forwardabove his head in the universal salute of Martians, and a momentlater his "Kaor!" the Barsoomian word of greeting, came in low butdistinct tones.

  I turned my eyes up the river in the direction that his were bent,and presently there came within my limited range of vision a longboat, in which were six men. Five were at the paddles, while thesixth sat in the seat of honor.

  The white skins, the flowing yellow wigs which covered their baldpates, and the gorgeous diadems set in circlets of gold about theirheads marked them as Holy Therns.

  As they drew up beside the ledge upon which Thurid awaited them,he in the bow of the boat arose to step ashore, and then I saw thatit was none other than Matai Shang, Father of Therns.

  The evident cordiality with which the two men exchanged greetingsfilled me with wonder, for the black and white men of Barsoom werehereditary enemies--nor ever before had I known of two meetingother than in battle.

  Evidently the reverses that had recently overtaken both peoples hadresulted in an alliance between these two individuals--at leastagainst the common enemy--and now I saw why Thurid had come sooften out into the Valley Dor by night, and that the nature of hisconspiring might be such as to strike very close to me or to myfriends.

  I wished that I might have found a point closer to the two menfrom which to have heard their conversation; but it was out of thequestion now to attempt to cross the river, and so I lay quietlywatching them, who would have given so much to have known how closeI lay to them, and how easily they might have overcome and killedme with their superior force.

  Several times Thurid pointed across the river in my direction, butthat his gestures had any reference to me I did not for a momentbelieve. Presently he and Matai Shang entered the latter's boat,whi
ch turned out into the river and, swinging round, forged steadilyacross in my direction.

  As they advanced I moved my boat farther and farther in beneath theoverhanging wall, but at last it became evident that their craftwas holding the same course. The five paddlers sent the largerboat ahead at a speed that taxed my energies to equal.

  Every instant I expected to feel my prow crash against solid rock.The light from the river was no longer visible, but ahead I sawthe faint tinge of a distant radiance, and still the water beforeme was open.

  At last the truth dawned upon me--I was following a subterraneanriver which emptied into the Iss at the very point where I hadhidden.

  The rowers were now quite close to me. The noise of theirown paddles drowned the sound of mine, but in another instant thegrowing light ahead would reveal me to them.

  There was no time to be lost. Whatever action I was to take mustbe taken at once. Swinging the prow of my boat toward the right,I sought the river's rocky side, and there I lay while Matai Shangand Thurid approached up the center of the stream, which was muchnarrower than the Iss.

  As they came nearer I heard the voices of Thurid and the Father ofTherns raised in argument.

  "I tell you, Thern," the black dator was saying, "that I wish onlyvengeance upon John Carter, Prince of Helium. I am leading youinto no trap. What could I gain by betraying you to those who haveruined my nation and my house?"

  "Let us stop here a moment that I may hear your plans," replied thehekkador, "and then we may proceed with a better understanding ofour duties and obligations."

  To the rowers he issued the command that brought their boat intoward the bank not a dozen paces beyond the spot where I lay.

  Had they pulled in below me they must surely have seen me againstthe faint glow of light ahead, but from where they finally came torest I was as secure from detection as though miles separated us.

  The few words I had already overheard whetted my curiosity, and Iwas anxious to learn what manner of vengeance Thurid was planningagainst me. Nor had I long to wait. I listened intently.

  "There are no obligations, Father of Therns," continued the FirstBorn. "Thurid, Dator of Issus, has no price. When the thing hasbeen accomplished I shall be glad if you will see to it that I amwell received, as is befitting my ancient lineage and noble rank,at some court that is yet loyal to thy ancient faith, for I cannotreturn to the Valley Dor or elsewhere within the power of the Princeof Helium; but even that I do not demand--it shall be as your owndesire in the matter directs."

  "It shall be as you wish, Dator," replied Matai Shang; "nor is thatall--power and riches shall be yours if you restore my daughter,Phaidor, to me, and place within my power Dejah Thoris, Princessof Helium.

  "Ah," he continued with a malicious snarl, "but the Earth man shallsuffer for the indignities he has put upon the holy of holies, norshall any vileness be too vile to inflict upon his princess. Wouldthat it were in my power to force him to witness the humiliationand degradation of the red woman."

  "You shall have your way with her before another day has passed,Matai Shang," said Thurid, "if you but say the word."

  "I have heard of the Temple of the Sun, Dator," replied Matai Shang,"but never have I heard that its prisoners could be released beforethe allotted year of their incarceration had elapsed. How, then,may you accomplish the impossible?"

  "Access may be had to any cell of the temple at any time," repliedThurid. "Only Issus knew this; nor was it ever Issus' way todivulge more of her secrets than were necessary. By chance, afterher death, I came upon an ancient plan of the temple, and there Ifound, plainly writ, the most minute directions for reaching thecells at any time.

  "And more I learned--that many men had gone thither for Issus in thepast, always on errands of death and torture to the prisoners; butthose who thus learned the secret way were wont to die mysteriouslyimmediately they had returned and made their reports to cruelIssus."

  "Let us proceed, then," said Matai Shang at last. "I must trustyou, yet at the same time you must trust me, for we are six to yourone."

  "I do not fear," replied Thurid, "nor need you. Our hatred ofthe common enemy is sufficient bond to insure our loyalty to eachother, and after we have defiled the Princess of Helium there willbe still greater reason for the maintenance of our allegiance--unlessI greatly mistake the temper of her lord."

  Matai Shang spoke to the paddlers. The boat moved on up thetributary.

  It was with difficulty that I restrained myself from rushing uponthem and slaying the two vile plotters; but quickly I saw the madrashness of such an act, which would cut down the only man who couldlead the way to Dejah Thoris' prison before the long Martian yearhad swung its interminable circle.

  If he should lead Matai Shang to that hallowed spot, then, too,should he lead John Carter, Prince of Helium.

  With silent paddle I swung slowly into the wake of the larger craft.